Abstract
The spontaneous fission and neutron emission properties of Californium sources serve as a unique tool to analyze and validate the quality of detection of fission products. State-of-the-art methods for determining the age of a young Cf source were re-examined and modified. Further improvement included the determination of the single Cf isotopes within the Cf source and the neutron emission rate of the source.The analysis was performed by comparing the simulated γ-ray spectra of the Nucleonica suite with measured data of a young Cf source employing an HPGe detector. In addition, with the evaluation of the 133.5 keV peak (mainly due to the β-decay Ce-144/Pr-144) in relation to a peak at 497.1 keV (mainly due to the β-decay Ru-103/Rh-103) or 724.3 keV (multiplet, dominated by Ru-105/Rh-105 and Ce-145/Pr-145), the age-determination method of the investigated Cf source could be considerably improved to a confined age of 20 ± 3 months.By means of decay simulations, some deficiencies of current techniques in determining the isotope abundances were introduced. In particular, the quantities of Cf-252 and Cf-249 were analyzed extensively. Consequently, the source’s neutron emission rate matched well the emission rate from the source’s certification. The difficulties of defining the abundance of additional Cf isotopes within the source, albeit with lesser importance, are also illustrated.
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